Telling Colors
by alicat54
Summary: Ever since he first could remember, Ace saw red.
1. Ace

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Ever since he first could remember, Ace saw red.

It seethed across his skin and glowed through his veins at the slightest provocation, causing Dadan and her mountain bandits to scurry away, their own lights flickering yellow in terror.

It was unnatural for a child so young to have only one color, they would whisper, he must be a monster!

This would only enrage the boy more, to the point where he would blast his way through the forest, leaving smashed boulders and splintered wood in his wake.

He was about to fell another great tree, when a light snaked through his own, forcing him back. Ace snarled, looking around for the person stupid enough to interrupt his rampage.

A boy, about his own age with blonde hair and a blue coat, frowned at him, hands sheathed in glowing green. "Hey, I live here! Back off!"

Ace had never met another person with a strong enough emotional spectrum to combat his own, but he didn't think much of it as he attacked the strange boy.

Later, both boys lay bruised and tired on the forest floor.

"You fight pretty good," the blonde panted. "I'm Sabo. We should be friends."

The brunette didn't know what to say, but, for the first time in his life, the haze of red flickered. "I'm Ace."

The two became thick as thieves, literally in some cases as they began to rob the patrons of Goa blind to add to their treasure fund. Then Luffy came, and after an initial rocky start, the third musketeer joined the merry band.

The red spectrum in Ace's heart still flared violently, but Sabo would only counter these outbursts with his own nudge of color. Ace noticed how his friend's spectrum flared from green (when they trained) to indigo (when Luffy scraped a knee and started crying like a baby).

Luffy... his spectrum flared all across the rainbow like a severely spastic butterfly. One minute he would be a solid green charging headlong into a fight, and the next a blinding orange when he caught sight of food.

Then Sabo died, and Ace made a promise.

The red still glimmered beneath his skin sometimes, but he chipped away at it with the impenetrable stubborn emerald of determination. He would become the strongest and freest pirate in the world, and he would protect his baby brother. There was no room inside him for anything else.

When he finally set out to sea, Ace could even pretend that green was his only color.

Meeting Whitebeard was the second most terrifying experience of Ace's life. He had never met someone with such a solidly green spectrum, which smashed through his own light constructs and shields as if they were paper.

The first was when he told his captain about his parentage. That was the only time in his life Ace remembered his spectrum turning yellow.

Pops smiled softly at his silly son, heart glowing a dark blue. "We're all children of the sea," the old man said. All the rage bled out of Ace in that moment, and for once he felt... well he was sure there wasn't a color for it.

Everything would have been perfect, except Thatch was murdered by that no good yellow belly Teach.

His world was consumed by red once more, flaring so strongly that the wooden deck splintered. No one, not even Marco with his cool blue light, could dissuade him from getting vengeance.

Ace later supposed that was what led to his defeat against Teach- he fought with red not green. He was a fool like that sometimes, or so Pops would say.

When all his friends and crew mates came to save him (hearts glowing green- green for _him_) the young pirate felt numb inside with yellow. When Luffy managed to unlock his bindings, he flew into the fray with green spiked flames. When he lay dying in his brother's arms, all he saw was purple.

"Thank you for loving me," he whispered, heart pounding so hard with compassion and love he thought it might burst, then-

Black.

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A/N: So this is a kind of character study looking at a 'what if' scenario. Basically, people in the OP world all have visible emotional spectrums, which in the case of very strong individuals can be used like the rings of the DCU's Lantern Corps. In case you coundn't tell, this is based off the ring's powers and spectra.

Here's a breakdown of what the color's mean. More interesting info can be found on the DCU page about the Lantern Corps.

Red: Rage

Orange: Greed

Yellow: Possessed by people who are afraid, or have the ability to cause much fear. Can only be beat by green.

Green: Will, determination

Blue: Hope. Can only have the full extent of their abilities unlocked in the presence of a green.

Indigo: Compassion. Can exert their will on and control others.

Violet: Love, or someone denied love.

Black: Death.

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	2. Nami

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It was said that a person's color changed constantly when they were young, but would begin to settle into the person's dominant emotional spectrum as they aged. Most people wavered between colors, and very few had what it took to actually utilize their power to do more than create a pretty glow in the dark.

Nami knew she would never be able to do more than read with her light under the covers at night... but when Arlong came she couldn't even do that anymore.

She clothed herself in orange, letting it flare in her eyes and across her fingers. The fishmen never caught even a whiff of the yellow hiding beneath her skin.

Sometimes, usually when sitting beside her mother's grave, a green spark would ghost across her heart, giving her the strength to keep going. She would free her home from the pirate's rule, and if it meant never letting her emotions waiver from the pit of greed, then so be it.

Then she met an infuriating boy in a straw hat, and her facade cracked. Nami strained against it, trying so hard to stop the flickers of indigo she felt for her companions show on her skin. It all finally came tumbling down as she sat defeated in the middle of the road, bloody, and tearstained.

"Luffy, help me!" she wept.

His eyes glowed blue, the same blue which always wove through the boy's determination, but purer, stronger, this time. "Of course," he stated, and the blue darkened to deepest emerald, then beyond- lighter and brighter to-

Suddenly she could believe in miracles again, and know with certainty that Arlong was going down.

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A/N: So this is a kind of character study looking at a 'what if' scenario. Basically, people in the OP world all have visible emotional spectrums, which in the case of very strong individuals can be used like the rings of the DCU's Lantern Corps. In case you coundn't tell, this is based off the ring's powers and spectra.

Here's a breakdown of what the color's mean. More interesting info can be found on the DCU page about the Lantern Corps.

Red: Rage

Orange: Greed

Yellow: Possessed by people who are afraid, or have the ability to cause much fear. Can only be beat by green.

Green: Will, determination

Blue: Hope. Can only have the full extent of their abilities unlocked in the presence of a green.

Indigo: Compassion. Can exert their will on and control others.

Violet: Love, or someone denied love.

Black: Death.

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	3. Usopp

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Usopp was not ashamed of his color. No, he was quite happy to be identified a coward, thank you very much. (Though with crew mates like his...well who could blame him.)

He wasn't like Nami who only showed her fear during a fight, oh no, Usopp was a true to the bone 24/7 coward.

Besides, yellow was very useful for lighting up his workbench at night, when the candles blew out and he didn't want to get another. What other color was pale enough to do that? He couldn't do much else with his light, but the coward took pride where he could.

He was never ashamed at the way his colors glowed during battle, in fact he hardly ever paid any attention to it any more at all. There were more important things going on- like trying not to get killed. It didn't matter to him at all, really.

"Sogeking is so awesome!" Luffy cheered on the deck of the Thousand Sunny. "And did you see how determined he was? I want him on my crew!"

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A/N: So this is a kind of character study looking at a 'what if' scenario. Basically, people in the OP world all have visible emotional spectrums, which in the case of very strong individuals can be used like the rings of the DCU's Lantern Corps. In case you coundn't tell, this is based off the ring's powers and spectra.

Here's a breakdown of what the color's mean. More interesting info can be found on the DCU page about the Lantern Corps.

Red: Rage

Orange: Greed

Yellow: Possessed by people who are afraid, or have the ability to cause much fear. Can only be beat by green.

Green: Will, determination

Blue: Hope. Can only have the full extent of their abilities unlocked in the presence of a green.

Indigo: Compassion. Can exert their will on and control others.

Violet: Love, or someone denied love.

Black: Death.

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	4. Zoro

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Zorro was determination. He breathed stubbornness. He was the poster child of what a green emotionally spectrum based individual strived to be.

This was why so manny thought him to be the true captain of the Straw Hat Pirates. Greens usually were the captains of ships.

Zoro himself never commented when people whispered about the powerful aura he put forth, and how someone that strong surely had no emotions to spare for anything else.

That wasn't entirely true.

Hidden in the depths of the swordsman's soul flared a spark that most definitely was not green. It sometimes flared to life behind his eyes when facing a difficult opponent, and those who saw it shivered and thought it to be the red rage of madness.

They were always mistaken.

Only one person ever correctly identified the spark, and Zoro still hates the cook for it.

"So, who was she," Sanji asked, a cigarette between his teeth. His own purple light twisted through the smoke in complex patterns.

Zoro scowled at the chief, clutching the white hilt of his sword, jaw tight.

Sanji shrugs at his crew mate's silence. "Fine, then don't tell me."

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A/N: So this is a kind of character study looking at a 'what if' scenario. Basically, people in the OP world all have visible emotional spectrums, which in the case of very strong individuals can be used like the rings of the DCU's Lantern Corps. In case you coundn't tell, this is based off the ring's powers and spectra.

Here's a breakdown of what the color's mean. More interesting info can be found on the DCU page about the Lantern Corps.

Red: Rage

Orange: Greed

Yellow: Possessed by people who are afraid, or have the ability to cause much fear. Can only be beat by green.

Green: Will, determination

Blue: Hope. Can only have the full extent of their abilities unlocked in the presence of a green.

Indigo: Compassion. Can exert their will on and control others.

Violet: Love, or someone denied love.

Black: Death.

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	5. Brooke

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Brooke remembered when his spectrum transitioned across the spectrum. He never had the ability to cast more than a pretty light show, not like captain, but he had enough ability to put on a show while playing his violin. Now though...

Between his bones where there was once joints and tendons, black flickered, holding him together. The color licked the edges of his blade when he fought, and permeated the chords of his piano. He could bend the music in the air into inky notes and clefs adding to the power of his compositions.

The power granted to him by death scared the skeletal man sometimes. He knew he could do terrible things if he allowed himself to be consumed by the black- the true curse of the Yomi Yomi no Mi.

On the Straw Hat's ship, however, under the blue sparked aura of his captain and the swirling colors of his friends, he could hold himself back from that edge.

And if he couldn't...he knew they would stop him.

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A/N: So this is a kind of character study looking at a 'what if' scenario. Basically, people in the OP world all have visible emotional spectrums, which in the case of very strong individuals can be used like the rings of the DCU's Lantern Corps. In case you coundn't tell, this is based off the ring's powers and spectra.

Here's a breakdown of what the color's mean. More interesting info can be found on the DCU page about the Lantern Corps.

Red: Rage

Orange: Greed

Yellow: Possessed by people who are afraid, or have the ability to cause much fear. Can only be beat by green.

Green: Will, determination

Blue: Hope. Can only have the full extent of their abilities unlocked in the presence of a green.

Indigo: Compassion. Can exert their will on and control others.

Violet: Love, or someone denied love.

Black: Death.

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	6. Chopper

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Doctorine once told Chopper the secret to being a good doctor.

"You need to let your patients go out and hurt themselves, no matter how many times you must patch them up again afterwards."

"But that's stupid!" the reindeer yelled, aura flashing indigo. "If I can make them stay unhurt-"

The old woman's aura flashed dark blue in response, her eyes sharp. "When you've got a color as strong as ours, you cannot abuse the power it gives. Those who do are not fit to be called doctors. A doctor never subverts the will of their patients."

"But Doctorine, what about that time when that man kept taking off his bandages-"

"That's different," she brushed him off. "Now, which book have you read today?"

Chopper still didn't understand what she was trying to tell him back them, but he kept her words close to his heart and never used the strength of his compassion to pull others under his control...no matter how much he wished a certain swordsman would stay in bed after a fight...

The reindeer shivered, recalling Dr. Hogback's minions and the blank indigo glow behind their eyes as they obeyed the evil doctor's commands.

No, Chopper would never use his power like that.

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A/N: So this is a kind of character study looking at a 'what if' scenario. Basically, people in the OP world all have visible emotional spectrums, which in the case of very strong individuals can be used like the rings of the DCU's Lantern Corps. In case you coundn't tell, this is based off the ring's powers and spectra.

Here's a breakdown of what the color's mean. More interesting info can be found on the DCU page about the Lantern Corps.

Red: Rage

Orange: Greed

Yellow: Possessed by people who are afraid, or have the ability to cause much fear. Can only be beat by green.

Green: Will, determination

Blue: Hope. Can only have the full extent of their abilities unlocked in the presence of a green.

Indigo: Compassion. Can exert their will on and control others.

Violet: Love, or someone denied love.

Black: Death.

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	7. Franky

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Many people thought Franky was much younger than his thirty odd years, because his aura was, on a calm day, like a kaleidoscope. A fast spinning kaleidoscope of rainbow feelings and energy.

The cyborg paid no mind to the whispers behind his back of immaturity or psychosis. What did it matter if his heart couldn't stay put? Ever since Tom...well, no one recognized him as the green dazed Cutty Flam since them.

He wasn't determined like he was back then to fulfill his dream. Other more pressing matters of the present required his attention- besides, a boat to go around the world? How foolish.

Then he met a boy in a straw hat and agreed to build him a ship.

Before they started work, Iceberg clapped a hand to his friend's shoulder. "It's good to have you back," he said, before walking towards the planks of adam wood.

Franky didn't know what he meant, until he saw the green flickering around his hands and tools. He snorted, and got to work.

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A/N: So this is a kind of character study looking at a 'what if' scenario. Basically, people in the OP world all have visible emotional spectrums, which in the case of very strong individuals can be used like the rings of the DCU's Lantern Corps. In case you coundn't tell, this is based off the ring's powers and spectra.

Here's a breakdown of what the color's mean. More interesting info can be found on the DCU page about the Lantern Corps.

Red: Rage

Orange: Greed

Yellow: Possessed by people who are afraid, or have the ability to cause much fear. Can only be beat by green.

Green: Will, determination

Blue: Hope. Can only have the full extent of their abilities unlocked in the presence of a green.

Indigo: Compassion. Can exert their will on and control others.

Violet: Love, or someone denied love.

Black: Death.

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End file.
